The Weekly Pulse: TV's Second Wife

Archive

Life is unpredictable. March Madness is crazy! Surprises..surprises. Now who had that “Final Four” in their brackets? Anyone? Nope! Don’t even say it. No way you could have picked ALL four of them. NO WAY! George Freakin’ Mason! Eh, but what do you do? Actually..I’m still #1 on the InsidePulse Tournament Challenge! So I RULE! Anyways..our little TV tournament continues. Find out if any of the new shows I added last week advanced further in the tournament later.

How is Bucky still on ‘American Idol’? He should have went home this week. I thought America got it straighten out last week when they sent home Kevin. But I was wrong. Yes..I suppose Lisa should be going soon. But not before Bucky. And Katherine in the bottom two? You’re kidding me! I don’t like this at all. Although, at this point..most of people left are good singers..so it will be interesting to see who goes home each week. Please get Bucky out soon and Kellie..please! I can’t handle much more of her dumb self even if it’s an act, which I doubt!

This week I checked out some new shows. ‘Hustle’ and ‘Black.White.’, because of the recommendations from Mathan. ‘Hustle’ was good, but it’s not my kind of show. It is good, though. ‘Black.White.’ is interesting. I will probably watch it again to see if it holds up. I saw ‘Teachers’ as well. People say it’s ‘Scrubs’ in a classroom. Yeah..I can see that, but it was still funny. And since nothing is in that timeslot that I want to watch anyways..I will probably continue to watch it. And ‘Unan1mous’ is growing on me as well. Nothing else is on, so why not. The whole idea of being trapped under ground is cool. And hopefully they will keep throwing in twists to make the show more interesting. It’s FOX, so they will probably have a twist every five minutes!

Did I mention that a comedy I was watching and liked..’Four Kings’ has already been cut! Yep..it’s gone. But this actually leaves a spot open on Thursdays where I can watch another new comedy..’The Loop’ on FOX. I liked the first episode, because I could relate to it. I don’t have roommates, but I just graduated college and trying to figure out what I want to do next while still having LOTS of “college” fun! It’s a tough balancing act.

Lets see..I guess that is about all. Lets get to the week that was here at IPTV!

Seinfeld Quote of the Week

“I hate the thought of someone out there returning my calls.”Jerry (realizing his answering machine was taken) from episode 3 of the first season

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Columns a.k.a. The All-Star Lineup!!

Mathan Erhardt does a lot of campaigning this week for his favorite shows to move on in my tournament to crown the “best show on TV”. Nothing wrong with that..not against the rules or anything. He also comments on ‘The Evidence’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Boston Legal’, ’24’, ‘Lost’, ‘Hustle’, ‘The Boondocks’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Big Love’, ‘Prison Break’, ‘The Unit’, and ‘The Shield’. He also asks you if you would rather live with The Smurfs or The Fraggles? I would be with The Smurfs. Wait..there is only one female smurf there and you know she’s like a doorknob (everyone gets a turn). So maybe The Fraggles is better, but the smurfs are blue and have a better language. Smurfs it is!

DeeDee talks more about ‘American Idol’. Some VERY interesting comments from her on that show and I pretty much agree with all of them. There are some great singers in this competition, but some of them don’t have the “image” to be the idol. Of course, Carrie won last year..so who knows. Ace has the image, but doesn’t always bring it. Chris has the voice and an image and COULD win..but it’s still a little cloudy. This is America..after all. Hopefully things will continue like they did in week #2 than week #1 and this week.

Murtz chats with another former ‘Apprentice’ star this week. He talks with Brent Buckman from ‘The Apprentice 5’. He had a lot to say..so read now!

Mike Sage doesn’t understand why hockey doesn’t “sell” in the U.S. He tries to help it out by saying it should learn from ‘Skating with Celebrities’. My opinion is that there IS a geographical difference in the United States. In the North, where it’s colder..hockey is more popular. Why? They have more ice. In the South, football is more popular. I should know..I live in the South and around here..football is king! It has been for generations and it rarely snows or ices here. Yeah..people may watch the Winter Olympics on TV, but MORE people watch the Summer Olympics. Just look at the past ratings.

Sarah Quigley discusses the latest episode of ‘The Apprentice’ and who got eliminated. Check out all her thoughts on the show! And you could say that her column goes along with Murtz’s this week. How? Read them both to find out..if you don’t know already!

Matt Basilo had a busy week of TV watching this week. He talks about ‘Lost’, ’24’, ‘Deal or No Deal’, ‘The O.C.’, ‘Family Guy’, and ‘The Simpsons’! He was shocked to see a new episode from ‘Lost’ and looks like to be another one next week. He also became addicted to ‘Deal or No Deal’, while pointing out the problems that Howie Mandel has! Check all of that out and much more!

Dora Malone tells us what she thinks will happen on the next episode of ‘Survivor’, which would have already happened by the time you read this. So go see if she was right! And what’s this mystery spot she was talking about? Hmm…

Farah Syed is a TV snob! She remembers watching shows of the past where the TV stars of today started out on. She judges people on what they watch. I scoff at you Farah! Scoff..scoff..scoff..you snob! Judge me if you want! Everyone else..read this yourself to find out if you are a TV snob!

Patrick Gilchriest is happy that ‘Survivor’ is all new again! He talks about the latest episode, which included the merge of the two tribes. Basically, he talks about the show before it happened. So go read what he said and see if he was right! Then, compare and contrast Patrick with Dora.

Kevin Wong is too stressed out to do a full column this week. He also had a rough time flying to the U.S. earlier this week as well. So feel sorry for him. He just tells you what he watched this week along with a few links to other people not named Josh!

Recaps a.k.a. We Love to Watch TV!!

I still try to catch up on ‘The O.C.’ by recapping last week’s episode here! There was no new episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ this week, so the only thing else I have for you is the FINAL episode of the ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II’! Oh..and this week’s episode of ‘The O.C.’! I should be all caught up now!

Romo and Rob Purchase do another ’24’ recap together!

Kevin Wong has a LIVE recap of ‘The Amazing Race’ and a not-so-LIVE recap of ‘American Idol’! It’s the Tuesday two-step!

Steve Murray has the third episode of the new season of the ‘The Sopranos’! So if you don’t have HBO..you can still keep track of the show!

Bob Reiss is back with a LIVE recap of ‘Survivor’! It has returned!

This week we had 3 TV on DVD reviews!

Tom Pandich brings to you the “best” season of MacGyver according to him! See what all the fuss is about!

John Cavanagh reviews The Pretender: The Complete Third Season! See if was better or worse than previous seasons of the show!

Kevin Wong watched a little comics this week as he reviewed The Flash – The Complete Series!

Celebrities a.k.a. Murtz and Eliza Return Along with Jim!!

Former ‘Apprentice’, Jim, returns with his thoughts on episode #5 of the new season!

Murtz and former ‘Survivor’, Eliza, are back! A new episode of ‘Survivor’ is here and they are happy about that! Check out their thoughts on the show!

The Weekly Pulse Weekly Poll

The “Best Show on Television Tournament” continues! After I revised the brackets and added a few shows that I missed, we are finally down to the “Sweet 16” of the tournament. Did any of the new shows get enough support from the masses to advance? Or did the shows already in the tournament prove that they should be there as they move on? Last week’s results are further down..so keep reading to find out! And find out what matchups you get to vote on this week!

What Did My TiVo Record This Week?

Friday

– ‘Deal or No Deal’

– ‘Bam’s Viva La Spring Break’ (Part 2)

– ‘Celebrity Undercover: Nick Cannon’s Dime Piece’ (Nick looks for a woman during Spring Break!)

– ‘College Basketball’ (The Madness continues!)

Saturday

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘Hustle’ (Try-out! )

– ‘College Basketball’ (1 for 2 on my Final Four Picks!)

– ‘Kelly Slater Celebrity Surf Invitational’

Sunday

– ‘Unwrapped’ (Cookies!)

– ‘College Basketball’ (The BIGGEST upset EVER during March Madness?! Yep!)

– ‘Desperate Housewives’

– ‘The Next Food Network Star’

– ‘Knight School’ (A walk-on gets named for the Texas Tech basketball team! Okay..two of them!)

– ‘Black.White.’ (Try-out! Very interesting show. Still don’t have an opinion on it yet, though.)

Monday

– ‘Deal or No Deal’

– ‘Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet II’ (The last one!)

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

– ‘Unwrapped’ (Incredible Treats!)

Tuesday

– ‘$40-a-Day’

– ‘Secret Life Of…’ (Diners!)

– ‘Secret Life Of…’ (Soda!)

– ’30-Minute Meals’

– ‘American Idol’

– ‘Scrubs’

– ‘Teachers’ (Pretty funny!)

– ‘Rachael Ray’s Ballpark Cafe’

– ‘The Amazing Race 9’

– ‘The Real World: Key West’

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Wednesday

– ‘Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels’ (New York City!)

– ‘8th & Ocean’

– ‘Deal or No Deal’

– ‘American Idol’

– ‘Unan1mous’

– ‘True Life’ (I’m a TV Reality Star!)

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Thursday

– ‘Inside Dish with Rachael Ray’

– ‘Everybody Hates Chris’

– ‘The Loop’

– ‘The O.C.’

– ‘E.R.’

– ‘Late Show with David Letterman’

Time to Talk a.k.a. Did Any of the New Shows Added to the Tournament Advance?!?!

So last week I added 6 shows to this tournament, since people said I missed them the first time around. I gave them a random “lower” number and put them in the tournament to face off against the “bottom 6” winners of the first round of the tournament. The other 10 first round winners got a “bye” into the “Sweet 16” round of the tournament. Now the question is whether or not these new shows got enough support to advance in the tournament or were the original shows too strong for them? Lets find out. Here are the results of the second round of the tournament:

#16.A. – ‘Scrubs’ – 36
#16.B. – ‘Family Guy’ – 41

#13.A. – ‘Smallville’ – 33
#13.B. – ‘Boston Legal’ – 40

#12.A. – ‘My Name is Earl’ – 52
#12.B. – ‘The Shield’ – 24

#15.A. – ‘Veronica Mars’ – 40
#15.B. – ‘Entourage’ – 33

#26.A. – ‘The Office’ – 58
#26.B. – ‘Battlestar Galactica’ – 18

#23.A. – ‘The Amazing Race’ – 39
#23.B. – ‘Rescue Me’ – 37

So what did I think about the results? ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Boston Legal’ were the only two new shows to advance! All of these races were pretty close. The one big shock to me was the fact that ‘The Shield’ lost so badly. Maybe it was the competition as ‘My Name is Earl’ is an excellent show. But since people were saying that ‘The Shield’ was the best show on TV..I was expecting more out of it. When I look at the results..I do notice a constant theme. Shows on cable can’t compete with shows on network TV. Look at ‘The Shield’, ‘Entourage’, ‘Rescue Me’, and ‘Battlestar Galactica’. All of them are on cable channels and all of them lost to shows on network TV. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Not everyone gets HBO and I think some people forget about finding good shows on cable TV. They usually go to cable for reruns and whatever else, but not original programming. That is something new for cable channels and people may forget this.

It’s time to move on, though. We have our 16 shows left! Take a look at the updated bracket!

Best Show on TV

It’s now up to YOU to decide which shows should move on. We begin the “Sweet 16” round of the tournament this week. Some interesting battles. Lets see who moves on. You have 8 polls to vote on. Decide which show is better and next week we begin the “Elite 8”! So VOTE now! Tell your friends! Everyone continue the madness!

That’s all I got this week. Any comments, questions, or suggestions are always welcome. Especially anything you have to say on this tournament. I want to hear it!

“Life Ain’t Always Beautiful, but It’s a Beautiful Ride!”

And as always remember…“You Can’t Fight Fate!”. See you next week! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

I'm not embarrassed to say that my favorite television show of all-time is The O.C. I live by the motto "you can't fight fate!" More importantly, I watch WAY too much television, but I do so for the benefit of everyone reading this now. So to my mom and my wife, I say thanks for reading! To everyone else that might stumble across this, remember TiVo should be your best friend!